Bad Block Error on an OCZ Vertex 2, how to fix?

Matt915

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Feb 7, 2011
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So I'm trying to encrypt my OCZ Vertex 2 with Truecrypt and it keeps getting stuck at the same point and spitting out an error saying it's likely a bad block...how do I verify if this is true? Ordinarily I'd run defrag, but it's an SSD so I can't. Secondly, if this is the case, how do I fix it?
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
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you rma it. i might suggest the newer drives have FDE which is a better strategy since the drive leveling can take the encryption into consideration. iirc someone else offes FDE as well when i looked a few months back.
 

Matt915

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Feb 7, 2011
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UGH. I just got it back...is there no other way? I don't have time to set up another drive, i'm in the middle of a semester. OCZ is NOT on my Christmas card list right now lol
 

Mark R

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Oct 9, 1999
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chkdsk c: /f /b

This should find the bad sector, and trigger the drive to 'repair' it (the drive will replace it with a spare sector).
Additionally, if windows has logged the sector as 'bad', but the drive has 'repaired' the sector, this command will tell windows that the sector has been repaired and can be used again.
 
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Emulex

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Jan 28, 2001
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yes but if you have a visible bad sector - you have exhausted all spares. it's time to go back. or you have a catastrophic failure
 

tweakboy

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I dont know if this pertains to SSD ,,


You can get rid of bad sector on HD ,

You use HDD Regenerator.

on a SSD I dont know what the case is so I wont comment on that.
 

Emulex

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Jan 28, 2001
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well if it is an entire flash chip or a row or address line of bad sectors that may not be something the drive can correct from.
 

Matt915

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Feb 7, 2011
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I should probably mention the error type too:

"data error cyclic redundancy check" is the message truecrypt is giving me. It's stuck at 99.279% done lol. So close.
 

Mark R

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Oct 9, 1999
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yes but if you have a visible bad sector - you have exhausted all spares. it's time to go back. or you have a catastrophic failure

That's not stricly true. A bad sector is visible if the host has requested data from a sector that is corrupt and unrecoverable using ECC. While it could mean that the drive has run out of spare sectors, and was unable to reallocate the sector - it could also mean, that due to chance the sector suffered a single episode of severe corruption that wasn't picked up during routine self-testing/self-repair.

If the drive during (either following a host request, or during routine scrubbing) detects that a sector is corrupt but recoverable, the drive will recruit a spare and transfer the data into the spare automatically, and silently.

If the drive detects that a sector is unrecoverable during a routine scrubbing operation, it can't reallocate it because it doesn't have the data it contained. What it does is it waits in hope that the host won't want it. If the host simply writes over the top of the dead sector, the drive will reallocate the new data, and simply cover-up the fact that it had lost the data. Of course, ideally, sophisticated ECC and background scrubbing should minimize the chance of this happening, by catching corruption before the data actually is lost.

The problem comes where the drive has lost the data, and the host wants it back. If, all of a sudden, a sector gets corrupted beyond recovery, and then the host requests the data in it, the drive can't do anything else except return 'bad sector'. This gives the OS an opportunity to recover.

E.g. the OS may be running a RAID driver. When a typical software RAID driver gets a 'bad sector' message, it will reconstruct the data from the parity drive, and then write the reconstructed data back to the same 'bad' sector. When the drive receives an 'overwrite' request for the 'bad' sector, it can reallocate it at that point.
 

tweakboy

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I should probably mention the error type too:

"data error cyclic redundancy check" is the message truecrypt is giving me. It's stuck at 99.279% done lol. So close.

CRC is just a warning the drive should work properly still.

As for bad sector HDD Regenerator does it for HDD

But I dont think you can use this on SSD.

I dont know about SSD, but ya this will fix bad sectors. I have no idea about SSD what it can do. Probably not. I dont recommend actually using this. Might mess up drive even more.. hmmm
 

Nothinman

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Sep 14, 2001
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CRC is just a warning the drive should work properly still.

As for bad sector HDD Regenerator does it for HDD

But I dont think you can use this on SSD.

I dont know about SSD, but ya this will fix bad sectors. I have no idea about SSD what it can do. Probably not. I dont recommend actually using this. Might mess up drive even more.. hmmm

No, a CRC error is an error, not a warning. It means the data returned by the drive didn't match what was expected and is corrupt. There are other causes like cabling, memory, etc but you shouldn't ignore those errors and just hope for the best; that's just stupid.
 

Matt915

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Feb 7, 2011
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*sigh*. This drive has been a nightmare. Apparently when W7 goes into sleep mode sometimes there's an error, I had it happen twice before I realized what was happening, and had to reinstall W7 both times. The thing is, previously Truecrypt had worked fine, so the sector going bad had to be in the last week or so.


Ugh. I can't believe this shit
 

Foki

Junior Member
Jul 6, 2011
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@Matt915

Did you solve the problem? I have exactly yhe same issue with my Vertex 2.
 

Emulex

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Jan 28, 2001
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if its sandforce - it will always have this feature :) hence skip anything sandforce.

haven't seen the problem with indilinx or intel or toshiba - just sandforce. :(
 

Ghiddy

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Feb 14, 2011
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you rma it. i might suggest the newer drives have FDE which is a better strategy since the drive leveling can take the encryption into consideration. iirc someone else offes FDE as well when i looked a few months back.

What is FDE?